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In the Shadow of Yankee Stadium, an Off Year

By all reckoning, this should be the moment Saeed Alawy was waiting for. His shop, Pin Stripe Collectibles, sits just beyond the right field wall of the new Yankee Stadium, where Game 6 of the World Series will be played Wednesday night.

But Mr. Alawy and other merchants nearby said they had not benefited from the new stadium. In fact, many said that business was down significantly from previous years — running counter to predictions that the stadium would be an economic generator in the Bronx neighborhood.

For some businesses, the new stadium’s location disrupted foot traffic patterns that had been around for decades. For others, the allure of the stadium and all of its shops and food stands teamed up with the recession to siphon away too much business.

All of this has turned some merchants into temporary Phillies fans this week, if only in the hope that the necessity of one or two more Yankees games in the Bronx can help them salvage as much as possible of what has been a disappointing season for them.

“Sometimes you cry,” Mr. Alawy said, standing alone behind the glass display cases in his store, empty on Monday evening, a few hours before Game 5 was to begin in Philadelphia. About 20 copies of the $15 official World Series program he had ordered were still stacked on the counter.

Game 6 will be the eighth sold-out postseason game played at the stadium this year, on top of the team’s 83 other home games (81 during the regular season and two in the preseason). The Yankees have also opened the stadium twice in recent weeks to allow fans to watch the team play postseason road games on a giant screen, including Game 4 from Philadelphia on Sunday night.

All of that additional traffic will not make up for the loss in business this year, the merchants said.

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Businesses near Yankee Stadium like Pin Stripe Collectibles, above, say revenue is down despite interest in the Yankees' new home and the team's success.Credit
Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times

“Many people who thought that their business would be greatly increased have not experienced that,” said Ramón J. Jimenez, a lawyer and community advocate in the South Bronx. “I think a lot of people are disappointed.”

Will Lawson, who sells caps, T-shirts and other Yankees gear outside the stadium, is one of them. Mr. Lawson said his sales dropped by about half this year. He blamed the police for herding the crowds directly in and out of the stadium, and he accused the team’s owners of being greedy.

He said the Yankees had stepped up vending operations outside the stadium, creating more competition for independent merchants like him. Although the team charges more for the same items, Mr. Lawson said, it manages to keep fans from venturing across the street for bargains.

As an example, he pointed to an official Yankees cap with the World Series logo stitched on it that he said sold for $50 at the stadium. Mr. Alawy and other merchants were asking $45 for the same cap, and some said they would accept as little as $40.

Alice McGillion, a spokeswoman for the Yankees, said she could not explain why neighborhood merchants would be suffering. She said the team had done nothing substantially different this season, but had merely duplicated the outside vending operation it had around the old stadium.

“I don’t know what the cause of it would be, or what the effect of the recession would be,” Ms. McGillion said.

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Business owners along River Avenue say little of the fans' money is making it into their cash registers. Many are grateful for another World Series game in the Bronx.Credit
Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times

Asked how the recession had affected the Yankees’ merchandise sales, she declined to discuss whether the team had taken in more or less money from selling souvenirs this season. “We’re not going to get into the revenues,” she said.

On Monday, about an hour before the start of the Yankees-Phillies game, about a dozen customers were eating and drinking in the Hard Rock Cafe built into the southeast corner of Yankee Stadium. Less than a block south, the steel security gates were pulled down at Stan’s Sports Bar and Stan’s Sports World, longstanding businesses that catered year-round to the crowds drawn to the old stadium.

The city’s Economic Development Corporation estimated that each home playoff game produced $15.5 million in economic activity, including $6.7 million in spending on hotel rooms and taxi rides and in restaurants, bars and stores.

But on River Avenue in the Bronx, merchants said that very little of that money was trickling their way. Mr. Alawy, who said he had pulled about $30,000 out of savings to cover his costs this year, wistfully recalled the bounty that his family reaped during the 1996 World Series, when the Yankees played the Atlanta Braves.

While working in his father’s souvenir shop up the block, he recalled, there was no time to fold the T-shirts before selling them. Customers were lined up three and four deep at the counter yelling out orders and tossing wads of bills.

“They were throwing the money,” Mr. Alawy, 47, said.

Over the course of an hour on Monday, just 13 shoppers wandered into Pin Stripe Collectibles and Mr. Alawy made only four sales, for a total of $107. A man bought a $10 bracelet for one daughter and a $12 stuffed Dalmatian in a Yankees shirt for the other. A young woman paid $36 for two tank tops. A young man quickly chose a cap and, after doing a double take on hearing the price, handed over two $20 bills and dashed out.

A man in a black-on-black Yankees cap, who said he worked security for the team, said he was hoping the Yankees would lose Monday so that they could win the championship at home.

“If they win at home, that’s more money for me,” he said with a grin.

On the next beat, Mr. Alawy and Mr. Lawson, responded in unison: “More for all of us.”

A version of this article appears in print on November 4, 2009, on page A25 of the New York edition with the headline: In the Shadow of Yankee Stadium, an Off Year. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe